This year, Mental Health Awareness Month lands at a time of uncertainty, heightened stress, and reflection. Ongoing sociopolitical and economic challenges are weighing heavily on us, and intensifying the burdens of injustice we already carry. We also know that caring for our well-being, and for the ones we love, is essential for our collective liberation.
Mental health is not separate from the broader conditions we live in-it is shaped by the systems, policies, and histories that we experience in daily life. Whether you are navigating your own struggles, showing up for loved ones, or feeling more stretched than normal by the work in your community—please know you are not alone. Below, Borealis Philanthropy is honored to share a few offerings—spaces for care, healing and connection–created by and for our communities. Your feelings, your efforts, and your joy matter.
- Chosen for Change’s Chosen Fathers program creates a safe and supportive space for grieving fathers who have lost children to violence to be vulnerable. These men bond, heal, and grow together through monthly support meetings, one-on-one therapy, retreats, mentoring, and philanthropic opportunities.
- Throughout the year, Fireweed Collective is hosting virtual QTPOC support groups, offering a safe healing space for folks to connect and engage in creative activities as a collective.
- National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network is a base building organization led by and for QTBIPOC members who tend to the physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing of our community. Utilizing healing justice as their compass, they organize with practitioners, organizers and community members, in order to transform collective trauma and intervene against the harm of the medical industrial complex.
- Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity’s INARA is a 100% Trans and Queer Muslim support line. This line is for LGBTQ+ and questioning Muslims to discuss any topic in a safe space. Unlike therapy, support on this line is based in shared experience, does not diagnose folks, or telling them what they should and should not do. Call 71-QTM-INARA on Fridays and Saturdays between 5PM CT and 11PM CT.
- PeoplesHub is hosting a series of Community Care peer support groups for chronically ill and disabled movement folks to gather and explore what it means to bring our full selves to liberation work, while honoring needs for care and healing.
- Queer Crescent’s post-election zine Radical Love: A Care Package offers practical tools and healing justice strategies for queer and trans Muslims to care for themselves and their communities.
- YaYa Por Vida runs two Art as Healing programs in which folks impacted by substance use disorder and the War on Drugs use art as a tool to explore trauma and develop life skills such as communication, problem-solving, and decision-making. One program serves unhoused individuals, while the other works with middle and high school students.
As we navigate these challenging times, let us remember that community care is an act of rebellion. Healing is not linear, nor is it something any of us can do alone. We desire these resources to build connection and resilience to continue the work towards the world we desire: one where joy, justice, and healing are not just ideals, but lived realities for all.